


'til our compass stands still

by boreumdal



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinette, Aged-Up Characters, Angst with a Happy Ending, Designer Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Long-Distance Relationship, Mild Angst, post-reveal, these fools are so in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 13:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20621879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boreumdal/pseuds/boreumdal
Summary: [formerly titled "let's get lost"//revised on 4/13/20]marinette is finding that she may not be as cut out for a long-distance relationship as she thought. adrien shows her in the sweetest way that they can make it work.





	'til our compass stands still

_ “Hi, you’ve reached Adrien. I’m not available to take your call right now, but leave me your name and a message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks!” _

A beep, a pause, an intake of breath. 

Marinette Dupain-Cheng chewed on her lower lip, willing herself to say something, and then, with a dejected exhale, she pulled the phone away from her ear and touched the “end call” button on her screen. The clock on her phone read 3:14 AM. It was only a little past 8 PM in Paris—prime time to be rubbing shoulders with industry greats during Paris Fashion Week. 

Marinette scrolled through her texts to the last one she’d received from her boyfriend, four hours prior. 

_ sleep tight, princess. miss you way too much. _

Marinette rubbed her thumb over the text and felt her eyes well up. Immediately, she felt stupid for being so sad, and she blinked the tears back. 

“You’d didn’t want to leave him a message?”

“He’s busy,” Marinette mumbled. “I shouldn’t bother him.”

Tikki floated up to make herself level with Marinette’s eyes. “He loves you, Marinette. He’ll always make time for you. He said so himself!”

Marinette smiled wanly. “I know, Tikki. But I can’t just send Adrien distress calls whenever I’m sad and lonely.”

“Why not?” Tikki squeaked, eyes luminous. “That’s what he’s there for!”

“I’m in a foreign country by myself—I’m going to be sad and lonely a _ lot_. He has a job and a life outside of me and I can’t just ask him to be on call for my emotional needs.”

When Marinette had been offered a year-long internship with the Tokyo branch of one of her favorite fashion houses, she’d known she couldn’t turn it down, even if her newly blossoming, barely year-old relationship with Adrien made her want to stay firmly planted in Paris. 

She’d also known it would be hard, but the excitement of the internship offer and the thought of traveling to a totally different type of metropolis had helped distract her in the beginning. Now that the dust had settled and she was firmly entrenched in her work, she finally had time to realize how very alone she felt in the evenings when she got home. 

As many friends as Marinette had made in her job so far, none of them could fill the gaping void in her heart from three months of not being able to see Adrien or Alya. Marinette was in near constant communication with them—through texting, phone calls, emails, sending each other songs on music streaming apps, videochatting, and even sharing screens when she watched movies so they could watch with her—but it wasn’t the same. She had never known a life without her friends and her family nearby. Marinette had always thought herself adventurous and outgoing, but being so far from home made her realize, somewhat ashamedly, how attached to home she really was. 

Tikki lifted Marinette’s chin with her paws. “Cheer up, Marinette. I’m sure you guys will be able to visit each other soon.”

Marinette smiled. “Thanks, Tikki. You’re right.” 

Between Adrien’s master’s program and his near-full-time modeling job, Marinette knew that he’d have to stay put in Paris until at least Christmas. And Marinette hardly had time to leave work to grab lunch most days, let alone leave the country to go see her boyfriend. But Tikki was trying her best to cheer her up, and Marinette didn’t want to burst her bubble. So instead of voicing these thoughts, Marinette turned out her lamp, rolled onto her side in bed, and for the third night in a row, quietly cried herself to sleep. 

—

“You sure you don’t want to come out with us for dinner? We’re going to that new place around the corner!”

Marinette smiled at her coworker, who was giving her puppy-dog eyes. “I’m sorry, Moira—I’m just beat. I hardly slept last night. I think I need to go home and crash.”

Moira sighed. “Okay, but next time, you’re coming with! Right?”

Marinette nodded, flattered that her coworkers seemed to enjoy her company even when she was at her worst. Or that they took pity on her enough to want to drag her out with them. Either one was sweet, really. “See you on Monday.”

Marinette put in her earphones and slowly made the commute home, nearly dozing on the subway and contemplating how she’d spend the weekend. Typically, she'd alternate her time between tidying up her small, rented high-rise unit, working on her own independent designs, and chatting with her loved ones. The latter was likely not an option this weekend; Adrien was tied up with the last of Fashion Week events and would be largely unavailable, even over text, and Alya was on holiday with Nino in the Caribbean.

She felt the ache she'd felt in her chest the night before come back in full force as she thought about spending the weekend "alone." Then again, she thought, the workweek had been grueling, and Marinette felt like she’d been run ragged. Maybe she needed some time to herself after all. The thought of curling up in the bath with a cup of tea and a good book eased the ache some. She'd resolved to do just that when she reached the door of her small apartment.

Marinette noticed then that there was no longer a doorknob on the door—somehow, it had been removed clean from the door, which came open with a light push. Her breath hitched as she realized the light was on. And there was noise coming from just beyond the foyer—someone was running the sink in the kitchenette. 

“Tikki,” Marinette whispered as quietly as possible, “Spots on.”

The flash of pink from Ladybug’s transformation apparently had not caught the intruder’s attention. It had been a while since she’d had to don the Ladybug costume, and she’d learned that humans could be even more terrifying than akuma at times. Steeling herself, Ladybug drew a breath dashed her way into the apartment, yo-yo drawn. “Who are you, and why are you—”

“My Lady?” Adrien turned from the sink, looking thrilled and absurdly adorable in the frilly pink apron Marinette had picked up for 400 yen at the convenience store downstairs. “What’s the occasion? I haven’t seen you as Ladybug in months.”

“A-adrien?” Ladybug dropped her transformation, but she took a step back, not sure how to put the pieces together. She half wondered if this was a hallucination, a product of her own exhaustion and loneliness, or if somehow, the sentimonsters had come back and the Adrien standing before her was an impostor. Out of the corner of her eye, though, she saw Plagg buzz out of Adrien’s pant pocket and fly into Tikki with unbridled joy. _That_ didn't seem like something an impostor or a sentimonster could replicate. “What are you doing here?”

Adrien shut off the faucet, which had been running water into a large pot. He blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I—I wanted to surprise you. With dinner. But I’m not the best cook, so I thought maybe something easy, like spaghetti—but well, shoot, maybe I should have just shown up to your work and taken you out... You probably eat noodles all the time these days. I just thought, you know, you said you were having a hard week, and you'd be tired, so—”

Marinette shook her head, although the pressure in her chest eased up. The thought that someone or something was impersonating Adrien seemed more and more outrageous by the minute as she listened to her would-be boyfriend ramble sheepishly in a way that only the real Adrien could. “No, I mean—how are you—how are you here in _ Tokyo_? Isn’t it Fashion Week?”

Adrien shrugged. “It was almost over. Just one or two parties left, nothing I absolutely had to attend. And I told you the other night. I missed you way too much. I bought a ticket as soon as I sent you that text and got on the next plane here.” He looked at her now with a mixture of tenderness and desperation shining through his green eyes. "The thought of not being able to see you for even another day... All of a sudden, I just couldn't handle it."

Marinette swallowed, tears threatening to spill over her eyes. “You crazy cat.”

The smile fell off of Adrien’s face. “Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” Adrien rushed over to her, placing his hands on her shoulders. “Did I freak you out? Was this not a good time for me to come? I’m sorry, I should have checked, but I wanted to surprise you—”

Marinette pulled him into a tight hug and let out a long, relieved sob into his chest. She couldn’t speak, but Adrien seemed to understand then, and he rubbed his hands up and down her back, kissing her hair. “It’s okay, Bug. I’m here now.”

When Marinette had calmed down, both of them settled onto the futon by the bed, Adrien tangling his fingers idly in her hair as Marinette fiddled with a loose thread in the chest of his sweater, her chin pressed against his sternum. She could feel his heart beating and relished the sound of it. 

“I can’t believe you did this,” Marinette murmured, although she couldn’t stop smiling. “I don’t even want to know how much the plane ticket was.”

“I’ve been saving up credit card points,” Adrien said brightly. “I didn’t have to pay a dime!”

Marinette laughed. “Good.” She raised her eyes to his. “Did Tikki tell Plagg that I was crying myself to sleep? Is that why you came?”

Adrien frowned, his brow furrowing, and his eyes darted over to where the kwami were snoozing together on Marinette’s pillow. “No, Plagg didn’t mention anything to me about that. You were crying yourself to sleep?”

Marinette wanted to smack herself for revealing a detail that she knew would cause him unnecessary guilt. “No, I—well... just a few times. I missed you,” she whispered. “It’s been… hard.”

Adrien let out a soft sigh. “Why didn’t you ever tell me? You always sounded so excited on our calls. I thought you were having a great time.”

“I didn’t want to worry you,” Marinette mumbled. “You’ve got a lot going on.”

“Oh, Marinette…” Adrien’s frown grew more pronounced. “I told you that no matter what, I’d always put you first. Not just because I should. I _ want _ to.”

Marinette felt heat rise to her cheeks at the sweet words and buried her face in his chest. “I know. But I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

“You can take advantage of me whenever you’d like, my Lady,” Adrien said in his best Chat Noir voice, waggling his eyebrows.

Marinette rolled her eyes and slapped his arm. “Silly kitty. I mean, I’m glad I’m here,” Marinette said more seriously, not wanting to sound ungrateful. “But it’s been really lonely, too. I miss you all the time.”

Adrien swallowed. “I miss you all the time, too. I feel like I never stop thinking about you. If it makes you feel any better, it’s been really difficult for me, too.”

Marinette raised her eyebrows. “Really? I always thought it’d be easier for you—you’re home, and busy, and you’ve got all our friends around you—”

“Well, they’re not you,” Adrien said simply, and he grinned. “I wouldn’t spend two years’ worth of points on just anyone!”

Marinette giggled, the knot in her chest loosening even further. “Well, thank you. For missing me. And coming all the way over here to tell me that.”

“Thank _ you _ for not whacking the hell out of me with your yo-yo.”

Marinette laughed. “Speaking of—did you Cataclysm my doorknob?”

Adrien pressed his lips together. “So, uh… about that… Do you think the Miraculous cure works when there’s no akuma?”

**Author's Note:**

> *carefully tiptoes over all of my unfinished WIPs*
> 
> this is a product of desperately wanting to see adrien and marinette be happy and ridiculously in love with each other as they should be and listening to entirely too many "god i need you and i'm dying without you" songs (see, e.g., "west" by sleeping at last, which provided the basis for the title of this story, and "ocean" by parachute). 
> 
> also, annie (thegeneralgirl) and i decided that thrifty!adrien is our favorite adrien. no one knows how to utilize credit card rewards better than the one and only chat noir!
> 
> double also, i'm not sure if the question adrien asks in the end is actually answered in the series? if it is, let me know, and i'll fix it.
> 
> thanks for reading!


End file.
